5 new restaurants planned at new Sarasota mall

Most of the restaurants in the new Mall at University Town Center are scheduled to open in October.

JUSTINE GRIFFIN

The developers of the Mall at University Town Center made five new restaurant openings official on Monday for the $315 million project scheduled to open in October 2014.

Though the chain brands had been previously reported on by the Herald-Tribune, Manatee County's Benderson Development Co. and Taubman Centers Inc. announced the following restaurants for the 880,000-square-foot mall rapidly being built on University Parkway near Interstate 75:

• Brio Tuscan Grille, "northern Italian cuisine made from the finest and freshest ingredients in a Tuscan villa atmosphere."

All five chains are new to Sarasota and Manatee counties. That polished, upscale chains are coming here bodes well for the region, said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, a food consultant firm in Chicago.

"This year has been harder than most restaurant operators expected so even successful brands are cautious to expand," Tristano said. "This mix of brands shows that Sarasota is a market that can support it. Restaurants have struggled to find good expansion locations, but they are smarter about where they do open."

For example, the Cheesecake Factory, known for its expansive menu offerings and decadent cheesecake desserts, typically builds elaborate 10,000- to 12,000-square-foot restaurants. But in recent years, the chain has scaled back its restaurant footprints — to 8,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet — as it entered more suburban markets and connected "dots" geographically between restaurants.

"This grouping of restaurants, with retail and entertainment in the mix, creates a destination which consumers feel is worth driving to," Tristano said. "The developers that take the 'create it and they will come' attitude have been successful in the past, if they find the right mix of retail, restaurants and entertainment to compliment one another."

High-end stores

According to a recent site plan obtained by the Herald-Tribune, the mall also will play host to a bevy of new high-end stores, including Gucci, Tiffany's & Co., Armani and several dozen others that have tentatively committed to the property.

Other new stores scheduled to debut at the mall, according to the site plan, include Anthropologie, Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Sony and Salvatore Ferragamo.

Those are names that often find homes in high-end centers like the Mall at Millenia in Orlando and International Plaza in Tampa, two other Taubman properties in Florida. All five chains have restaurants at other Taubman Center malls across the country.

H&M — which stands for Hennes & Mauritz — also is slated to open its first store in the Sarasota-Bradenton market at the Mall at University Town Center. The Swedish retailer sells trendy, fashionable apparel and accessories for young men and women.

The mall's three confirmed anchors are Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's and Dillard's.

When plans to build the mall stalled during the height of the Great Recession, high-end anchors Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus dropped from the roster.

But with brands like Tiffany's and designer fashions from Salvatore Ferragamo, the mall will compare favorably with other luxury properties across the state.

It also will be the only upscale mall between International Plaza in Tampa and Waterside Shops in Naples, and the only enclosed one between Tampa and Miami.

The Mall at University Town Center is only the second new mall in any phase of construction in the U.S. since 2012. The other, City Creek Center in Salt Lake City, opened in March 2012.

EARLIER: The developers of the Mall at University Town Center made five new restaurant openings official on Monday for the $315 million project scheduled to open in October 2014.

Though most of the names already had leaked out, Manatee County's Benderson Development Co. and Taubman Centers Inc. announced the following restaurants for the 880,000-square-foot mall rapidly being built on University Parkway near Interstate 75:

According to a recent site plan obtained by the Herald-Tribune, the mall also will play host to a bevy of new high-end stores, including Gucci, Tiffany's & Co., Armani and several dozen others that have tentatively committed to the property.

Other new stores scheduled to debut at the mall, according to the site plan, include Anthropologie, Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Sony and Salvatore Ferragamo.

Those are names that often find homes in high-end centers like the Mall at Millenia in Orlando and International Plaza in Tampa, two other Taubman properties in Florida.

H&M — which stands for Hennes & Mauritz — also is slated to open its first store in the Sarasota-Bradenton market at the Mall at University Town Center. The Swedish retailer sells trendy, fashionable apparel and accessories for young men and women.

The mall's three confirmed anchors are Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's and Dillard's.

When plans to build the mall stalled during the height of the Great Recession, high-end anchors Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus dropped from the roster.

But with brands like Tiffany's and designer fashions from Salvatore Ferragamo, the mall will compare favorably with other luxury properties across the state.

It also will be the only upscale mall between International Plaza in Tampa and Waterside Shops in Naples, and the only enclosed one between Tampa and Miami.

The Mall at University Town Center is only the second new mall in any phase of construction in the U.S. since 2012. The other, City Creek Center in Salt Lake City, opened in March 2012.